Days 24 and 25: Winding down but seeing a friend
Friday March 25 and Saturday March 26
Day 24: Water Borne Disease NO, Afib, YES
Well, my heart went into Afib again, knocking the hell out of me. The good news is that the “water borne illness” hasn’t continued so either the medications are kicking in or it was something else. In this heat and going in and out of air conditioning, the Afib knocks me down for a couple of days…not just one like back home.
Because of the Afib and the fact that everything is closed here on Good Friday, I spent the day resting and reading and watching tv.
Day 25: The Mall, Getting ready to return, and meeting a friend
I met my friend Joevie at the Ayala Mall. Perhaps the month of March, this year, was not the best time to meet a pen pal. She was finishing up teaching of the school year while writing her thesis for her MS degree. Also, Holy Week has many family commitments for her, so a couple hours over ice cream and soda was the best we could squeeze in. It was worth the wait.
On another note:
Malls are interesting places all over the world. However, in the Philippines they have a twist I haven’t heard of in America. They have McDonald’s and Burger King over here, but Jollibee is the local hamburger chain that competes quite well with their international brethren. Evidently, Jollibee has a summer camp for kids aged 4 to 7 to become junior managers as shown in the poster below.
The daycamp is for 6 days and uniforms are provided. The cost is 575 P ($12.75) and kids are required to wear white socks and rubber shoes. It sounds like a great time.
Money Bummer: There appears to be some problem with my debit card. Netflix couldn’t get their payment and I couldn’t get money out Wednesday night. There should be money in my account. One thing I didn’t do is register my computer with my bank, so I can’t check my accounts online. The only way to verify my computer is for them to text me a code and my phone can’t receive or send texts from America. Guess this is part of International travel.
I have about $30 of Philippine Pesos left….enough for my ride to the airport and dinner tomorrow night. I have $122 in American money left to get me home.
Fortunately, I should be able to sleep on the long leg of my flight and be awake enough when I arrive on Monday to check my bank account. Worst case scenario…I’m broke (somehow). BUT, I’ve traveled to another country and enjoyed it. What more do I want? My cats, yes, my cats…I miss them….and it goes without saying, my kids..and my van….and hot water showers…..and double stuffed pizza…..and friendly acknowledgement of me as a human being by poker players and employees at Blue Lake Casino…..and water pressure……
and I could live here. It really is a combination of paradise and lost paradise.
It will be good to get home though, to continue on with bigger and better plans for the future.